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12/27/2016

Good afternoon from sunny, lovely South Florida. I hope that each of you had a wonderful Christmas, spent with those that you love best. Also wishing you some of this beautiful golden sunshine we've enjoyed each day since arriving. Although the day can become quite warm, there's been a soft cooling breeze to make the warmth very pleasant. Quite a welcome change from the gloomy overcast & sometimes chilly days we had before we left home.

Today's share will be the 3 last minute cards done for the family. After scrambling to finish them, I very nearly left them on the desk at home. Just happened to spot the envelope stack on the desk when turning off the light downstairs, to head up the steps, be ready for a very early (4:30am) departure.

DD's card -

DH Card -

The circle on DH's card is a mess-up from trying to emboss the Hero Arts Infinity Circles as Jennifer McGuire shows in her video. Used heavy weight w/c paper, and it still cut through the paper in places, rather than just embossing. Was able to salvage this portion, so cut out the bird and just adhered him to the embossed circles. A S/B border die cut the 2 side borders. ﻿

﻿

SIL card ﻿

These images are from the small size of the THoltz Crazy Birds, which have the accessories with the set, and used the same set of matching dies to cut out the hats. (Then did a bit of trimming). Used the Misti to mask for the hat, then after doing all the masking, realized it would have been easier to just stamp the hat, stick over the top of the CB's head, and would have probably been placed better too! The white fur was done with the Marvy snow pen, then heat set to puff it up.

S/B circle used to cut out the central motif, then a larger one to cut the mat. The papers are from a Christmas 6x6 pack - from the stash. The added bow on SIL's card came from a gift box that had some Godiva chocolates. Should have put this on DD's card, but didn't! (always 2nd guessing myself LOL)

Each Sweetie got a 'pretty card' which has been previously shared, and then the 3 'funny' ones. I think they liked them!

We had a lovely but quiet Christmas day. We had agreed to 'no gifts', but still Santa showed up. It's very difficult to think of surprises for adults, who buy what they want (that they can _afford_!) through the year. None of us needed clothes or more 'schtuff'. However Gift cards were welcome, and Mr. got a nice set of Uggs to keep his feet warm this winter. He asked me the size when he first saw them. I said "Never mind what size, just see if they fit"...they did look quite large compared to his actual foot size. However, they did fit, and both kids said "Uggs run small, in whole sizes, so you have to pick the next size up". So guess I won't have to be returning these!

That's it for today. Hope everyone has had a good start to the week, and probably lots are back at work after the holiday break. Big hugs and many prayers going out to those of my friends who stand in need just now. God Bless. Thanks for stopping in.

12/24/2016

Just a quick post to say Hello, & that we've arrived safely at our destination in Florida. No pictures to share as yet. I did manage to finish the 3 Crazy Bird cards I was working on at the last minute. Debating on whether to bring images to color, and stumbled on a travel box from another trip, so the copics bag and that box got packed. Then I nearly left the family cards on the desk, to leave at home! Happened to spot the pile just as I was turning out the downstairs lights to go up and sleep about 2am. Then DH woke me at 4am to get ready to depart. Not much shut-eye. However, I do sleep as we ride. (It's not really restful though!)

Tried to get round to all the email that had piled up - if I use the smart phone to look at email, it doesn't seem to really 'delete' stuff, even though I think I'm deleting it. When I powered up our webmail program, all that was still there, so had to tons of it to wade through. Tried to get round to visit all the sweet bloggers who had left comments. Hope I didn't miss anyone.

Will try to post the Crazy Birds cards later on. Just wanted to wish ALL of you a very Merry Christmas. If that's not a holiday you celebrate, then I'll wish you a Very Happy Day just the same.

The weather in So. Florida is just absolutely gorgeous today. Golden warm sunshine, but a soft cooling breeze. Talked with SIL this morning; it's overcast and a bit coolish at home. They were expecting rain later. So it's doubly nice to be with the DD, SIL and poochies in Fla.

Big hugs and many thank you-s to all who have sent snail mail cards, lovely ecards or sent email wishes. I'm so thankful for each of you, and feel very blessed by your friendship this past year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

12/23/2016

Hello and welcome to a scheduled post. Hopefully as you read this, we will have safely arrived in Florida. And MANY, MANY Thanks to all of you lovely friends who have sent us such beautiful Christmas cards. How that does brighten our day, and these are on the mantel for us to enjoy for a while.

Here's the card that DD will get this year (and a Crazy Bird card if I can get it finished in time!)

Background was first airbrushed using copics BG0000, BG000. This looked too pale, so before adding the reindeer, birds and snow hill, sponged around the edges/corners with DI Stormy Sky.

- Retro Reindeer - cut from brown glitter paper, using the nice thick metal shim that I have. Couple of passes, and it cut through that thick glitter paper very nicely. Added a Nuvo Glitter red nose.

- used a Memory Box tree die to cut fun foam, to ink up with Versamark, use as a stamp. Sprinkled this with some WOW silver glitter. We have some dinner plates that are white, have a light silver bare branches tree, with a single cardinal perched on a limb. That's where I got the idea. (but this card looked a little bare with just one red cardinal, so I added 2 more!).

Background was first airbrushed using copics BG0000, BG000. This looked too pale, so before adding the reindeer, birds and snow hill, sponged around the edges/corners with DI Stormy Sky.

12/22/2016

Good Afternoon. I expect most of you are scurrying around with last minute shopping, wrapping, baking, etc. We've been busy, but I surely don't know what it is that we've accomplished! Didn't do any decorating, aside from hanging wreath on front & back door. Nada on the baking as well. Weren't just sure until last minute if we'd be able to go to Florida so didn't do a lot of shopping, thinking we'd be sending $$$$ instead of gifts. Then found out we will be able to make the trip, so a bit of scurrying then, and you know, it's really difficult to think of gifts for adult kids. They buy things that they want, have enough dust collectors, can't buy them clothes, and gift cards seem like a cop-out (but some got purchased!) Found out you can do egift cards at Amazon too, so I hope my first try at that will work out with no hitches!

Before any more blah-blah, let me give a very warm welcome to a new follower, who joined about 2 wks ago, but I just didn't have a chance to introduce my new friend, Camille S. of Short on Ideas. Thanks for becoming a follower here, and one of these days, maybe I'll get to the 350 mark, and have a bit of New Year Blog Candy. I hope I haven't missed giving a welcome to any new followers, but if I have neglected to welcome you, provide a link to your blog so that my friends can visit you, please do let me know! Hope you have time to visit Camille, and enjoy her work.

OK, before today's card, I want to share a Halloween tag that was sent to DH, by my sweet (and so-talented) friend, Anne R. (Redanne). Anne loves Halloween, and so does DH, and she has sent him some awesome Halloween cards. He is just so thrilled that someone - so far away, that he's never met, is kind enough to do such.

So why am I sharing this just now? Anne had given me the heads up that she had sent Mr. a Halloween treat, but it didn't come, it didn't come, and we just thought it was lost in the mail. In collecting a packet of Christmas cards from the mail box quite recently, lo & behold, I saw an envelope from Miss Anne. We'd already gotten a lovely Christmas card, so I happened to glance at the franking date. It was Oct 15! How excited I was to hand this one over to the Mr, and say "Here's your Halloween card!" Both of us said, bet this envelope could tell some tales of where it's been for over 2 months!!!

Now for the Hero Arts Cardinal: (this will be DH's card this year).

H.A. Layered Cardinal - stamp & die set. Used some of the Altenew colored cube sets along with some Distress Inks to do the color layers. Even using the Misti, I had some frustration with this stamp set. The bird worked out ok, but tried to place his feet on the branch, add the greenery, and it was a mess. Finally just used the die set, cut all parts out, and assembled as shown here. Was tempted to do some hand cutting around the elements, to eliminate the 'white' from the die cut, but time was running out.

The background embossing was done with a rectangle die set that has a leaf pattern* (thought it was PTI, but can't locate it to provide a link.) Had seen Jennifer McGuire use dies to emboss, using this layered cardinal as the focal image. Tried using the circle infinity dies as she does in the video, but even with 140# watercolor c/s, the c/s was being cut more so than embossed. Finally used the sizzix emboss mat (the black one) rather than the thicker tan one that I normally use, and got a decent emboss. However, this die arrived in the mail, decided to try it on the technique, liked it much better. I can provide the die company if anyone is interested .. was pretty sure it was Paper Trey Ink.*

- Tim Holtz Sizzix 661597 Thinlets Holiday Greens for the holly and branches. (cut from white snippet c/s and colored with copics.). After placing the holly in the corners, thought the holly needed some branches, to make the greenery more lush. Holly berries are Nuvo Crystal glitter.

- SU sentiment, stamped with DI festive berry, and used SU punch.

That's it folks. Will have a scheduled post tomorrow. Trying to finish a couple of Crazy Birds cards to take along. Just added a lot of lovely Christmas cards to the Cards by Friends section, so if you've time, enjoy these right along with us.

Ya'll take care, try not to get too stressed with the coming holiday, and thanks for joining me. Prayers & good thoughts going out to my friends who are in need of that just now. Big Hugs, and hope you are not being Naughty!!!

12/11/2016

Hello and welcome to my last Christmas Card Club post for 2016, as our group will be taking a break until January 8, 2017. This challenge was selected by our Rita (RMG Creations) and Rita chose a Snow Scene. Since we've had a few cold days & nights lately in our area (and other places have certainly had even more intense cold than Upstate South Carolina!) this challenge seemed particularly apt!! The scene was not difficult to do, but it certainly was did not photograph well. I've increased the contrast using an editing program, so that it didn't look as washed out.

- MB Box Tree Branch Circle cut from a pale gray cardstock. Adhered Sookwang tape behind the cutout after removing all the little bits. This technique is one done by Jennifer McGuire (inked inlay) and I probably didn't chose the best circle cutout die to try this technique. Used another white piece and sponged DI Squeezed Lemonade, Spun Sugar, Milled Lavendar and Broken China to create a sunrise sky. Starting with the lemonade at the top of the c/s, layering the pink(sugar) over this, it did look quite like a pretty sunrise morning. It shows a bit up at the very top of the circle, and IRL does show up nicely. Then die cut this sponged piece, using a dryer sheet under the card stock so the little bits would not get lost (still tricky though, since some of this die's inlays are so tiny). Also ran the piece back through the Big Shot to set the inlay pieces into the sticky tape better.

- MB Small Quiet Deer cut twice (snippets), layered for dimension, then used clear WoS for some shimmer.

Lastly, sprayed some shimmering pearl mist over the card...from about 3 ft above the card, - still got a few blobs! All in all, I liked the card though. If you have time, do check out Jennifer's video.

Also hope that you will find time to visit my fellow teammates to see what they have shared with Rita's Snow Scene Challenge...you'll see lots of inspiration.

Thanks for joining me today, and there will be some lovely Christmas cards added to the friend's page - hopefully later today. Hugs & Blessings, and some peace in the next few weeks of pre-Christmas stress!

12/07/2016

Good afternoon, and hope you've had a good week so far & we'reon the down slope of the week now. We've had some nice rain and today has been overcast - with occasional sun glimpses. A bit chilly outside, according to DH, who is tending our neighbor's Lab. I am a house bunny and don't like to go out in the cold!

Today's card uses a stamp set purchased at Sparkle n Sprinkle some years ago. It's a set of old classic cars, (bet you can guess who picked this one out). I can only find a link for the image used on today's card, but the set we have (285-1900 Cars) has 4 vintage cars in nicely etched rubber. Not sure if the entire set is still available or just the one used on today's card. I've provided a link to that one.

Die cut with a S/B Classic Long rectangle, edging done with DI Iced Spruce and Clover.

- S/B classic scalloped long rectangle cut the mat from a copper texture c/s (looks orange here, but IRL it's a copper color). After adhering the image to the scalloped mat, decided to drag it through the Delicata gold ink pad.

- background was done with a Mbossibility folder (used 2 sheets of c/s so it didn't emboss quite so deeply. These folders are thick, so only used one of the plates over the top...always test these extra thick folders so the die cut machine doesn't choke). This c/s started out as a brilliant turquoise....decided to use the Ice Spruce and Clover to sponge over it, tone down the turquoise for a background. I deliberately didn't blend the sponging, but tried to go for a more 'mottled' look, as you might see in some old leathers. Was happy with the way this turned out.

- sentiment is from the 285 set. However, when it stamped out (using the Misti too) the sentiment looked too crooked to me (and this time I don't think it was operator error..the way the rubber is made - with one part of the sentiment layered over the other, it was impossible for me to get a straight look). So I cut the stamped image apart, then straightened it by cutting, and separated the parts as shown on the card. Sometimes one has to get quite creative. One of the reasons I'm trying to just buy clear stamps is it is much easier to see if something is straight when you're stamping (at least for me!)

A blogger question: At one blog I visit (Cardsarus) I can't leave a comment. When the comment is typed, and ready to publish, I get a prompt to select a profile. When I try to do so, all I get is a blank vertical rectangle box, with nothing to select.**So can't publish what I've typed. At first I couldn't even type in the comment box. I'm logged onto my blogger id, and I'm not running into this problem - so far - at other blogs. Anybody got any ideas as to what I should do? Fortunately I have Jenny's email, so I can send her my comments. She has no idea why this is happening and neither do I. We're hoping some other brilliant bloggers might give us a fix. Thanks for any help you can give us.

**EDIT:

Shaz
in Oz suggested Jenny change to a pop comments box as
that seems to work better.Not sure how Jenny was set up previously, but the change worked! I was able to type and publish my comment! YAY! Thanks Shaz and thanks for Jenny for being able to fix this!!! Brilliant bloggers both of you.

Thanks for popping by this afternoon. Hugs and stay warm if nasty weather is in your area. Prayers for those who are in need of them.

12/04/2016

Good evening on what has been a rainy & cooler Sunday for us here in Upstate South Carolina. It's been a very quiet day; didn't accomplish much aside from reading, and fixing some dinner (well, I did a load of laundry!) Hope that you had a good day. Our neighbor with the new hip seems to be doing fine, having home therapy visits. DH went to visit him a few minutes yesterday.

Another neighbor is getting new knee(s) this coming week...so DH picked out another design after finding an image that had been stamped who knows when. I had learned to do monochromatic coloring in a long-ago copic class, but had never tried it. So started out with that idea and here we go:

IO Classic Truck﻿ - used warm & cool grays to do the main coloring. Once that was done, it looked much too stark for me, so I added in a bit of green on the grass, very light blue in the sky (probably should have been a night blue!) and then colored the moon. In the moon area, the ink seemed to 'bleed' where the branches are, so used that Kaisercraft neon pen and it worked quite nicely! Remember I had I didn't care for the neon colors in the set? Came in handy. Die cut with a pierced rectangle die and just left the white edge as a mat. Windshield has Glossy Accents, and the metal parts got a lick of silver WoS.

-The clear ridged fishtail banner (which looks curled but it really is down flat) came from some recycled material that was holding 'something' in a Styrofoam packing. For some reason, the texture effect of this strapping made me think it could be used for _whatever_. As I was assembling the card, I thought about this plastic, and held it to the card. Got the Mr's opinion on it, and he said "Use it". The narrow fishtail in the center is a snippet from a sponging project.

- Very Old Stuff wooden get well stamp inked with Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink, stamped over the black. Realized I do not have a nice font for a get well stamp...must correct that little omission. (might have one as part of a clear set).

The card base is a green shade (not the chartreuse it appears in the photo!). I hope there are not any more Get Well commissions in the near future. Got some birthday cards that need to be done, and inserts for Christmas cards. Also some "special" Christmas cards for the family.

12/01/2016

Welcome to a scheduled post. Hope that you had a good day. It was lovely to see sunshine again today, as much as we did need the rain of the past 2 days. Our dogwood trees had developed the most beautiful red leaves, and I _meant_ to take some pictures. However yesterday's rain and wind stripped most of the leaves off the branches, and the 3 trees look quite sad today - so there will be no photos I guess!

Found this colored image in the UFO box, decided to do a little touch-up on the birds and turn it into a card:

- remember this is a wooden stamp, don't remember who made it. Colored with copics, but after finding it in the UFO box, die cut with a rounded S/B square, then used some WoS on the birds, then added in some more shading with the Kaisercraft gel pens. I'm not fond of the neon ones, guess I've just not had a chance to use them on something appropriate yet. I do like the jewel colors tho', and the blue brightened up the colors of on the birds, also did some leaf veining.

- S/B Asian motif die to cut the created background done with sponging over white c/s with DI Clover and Stormy Skies. Burnished with Perfect Pearls Biscotti to get a nice sheen. Use the bottom of this piece to cut the sentiment.

- embossed the card front using a Tuesday Morning find of a Sizzix EF, $3.99. Inked the folder with a blue shade of Hero Arts Ombre pigment ink, and this is the 2nd generation - first embossing was too dark to go nicely with the mat color.

Thanks for stopping for a visit this evening. I'm trying to keep up with commenting and returning visits, so be patient with me if I've not stopped by to say hello.

Cyber Hugs to all and Prayers for those who are in need of being uplifted just at the moment.